2. Hard drive failures
Shortness of breath, nausea, and intense feelings of dread. If you're experiencing these symptoms, you may be having a heart attack -- or you may be reacting to the death of your computer's hard drive.
Sean Marx recently suffered through the latter. He's CEO and co-founder of Give Something Back, an Oakland, California, supplier of environmentally friendly office supplies.
When he suddenly couldn't get his computer to turn on, he knew he was in trouble. Marx's computer holds very large spreadsheets that track the company's sales and accounting, and he is often the only person with up-to-date versions of those files. He hadn't backed up in six months, even though he knew better.
"I very quickly had that sinking feeling," says Marx.
How to respond: If your IT team can't bring your computer back to life, the only option is to send the drive to a data recovery service, which can charge anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars to rescue your files.
The services aren't always successful. In Marx's case, he spent $1,500 at a local data recovery shop, but almost all the files were corrupted.
He was able to recover many files attached to e-mails that were archived on the company's server.
Preventive measures: Back up your hard drive often, and use online services such as Mozy, iBackup, or EVault, which charge monthly fees of about $10 and up per employee.
That way, even if a fire or flood ravages your server room, the data will be fine. You could also swap your current hard drive for a system that uses two drives to store two sets of your data, otherwise known as a RAID.
So if one of the hard drives were to fail, you would still have the other.
Image: Mahendra Singh Dhoni is seen working on a computer in Mumbai | Photograph: Sebastian D'Souza/AFP/Getty Images
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